Two Different Waverunner Excursions to Stingray City ?

[sailandcruise]

I'm going to be on Grand Cayman with my 18 yo son and we would like to go on a waverunner excursion to Stingray City. I've reviewed several threads on these boards and also a number of web sites. I was a bit confused until I realized that there are two distinct operators/tours. One is from Action Watersports and also goes to Rum Point. The other is from Ebanks Watersports and also includes snorkeling. Action Watersports uses the yellow and black Sea Doo 1500 cc waverunners and Ebanks uses the blue and white Yamaha vx100's. Action Watersports leaves from the Grand Caymanian Resort and you have to take a taxi to get there and back. Ebanks appears to include transportation. Action Watersports charges $95 for a single driver and $140 for a driver and passenger; Ebanks charges $105 and $150 for a single/double. Action limits the tour to a maximum of 6 craft per group and Ebanks to 5. Both tours are two hours. Action can be booked through Island Marketing and Ebanks through shoretrips.com and viator.com (among others).

 

Here are their websites:

 

Action: http://www.ciactionmarine.com/catalog.htm

Ebanks: http://www.ebankswatersports.com/waverunners.htm

 

Any recommendations as to which to choose?

[rellie2002]

I'm so happy you asked this question because i'm trying to figure out which one to book too. If the ebanks one really includes transportation I might go with that one. I hope people respond and let us know from their experiences :)

[Latvish]

We booked Ebanks for our 11-3-07 cruise but we are going to do the Reef & Wreck Snorkel as we have all ready been to Stingray City.

 

We payed $125 pp and have a 10:30 am departure.

 

They will pick us up at Hard Rock Cafe and take us to the Wave Runners.

 

We will write a review when we get home.

 

It sounded good so rather than doing a ship excursion we are going with this one

[sailandcruise]

Just found this link http://www.wayneswords.com/cgi-bin/wwlprecreation.pl?noframes;read=2643 that discusses the differences between the two types of waverunners from the perspective of someone deciding which one to buy.

[sailandcruise]

Latvish, Did you book through shoretrips.com or someone else? Shoretrips charges $125 for a single and $150 for a double; if you book directly with Ebanks the price is only $105 for the single and $150 for the double.

[wolfganghowell]

We did Island marketing and Action and were so happy we are booked again. Just saw another thread on the board that Cayman has enacted a new law prohibiting waverunners at Stingray City. So there should be new information coming down the pike soon.

[sailandcruise]

Booked two single waverunners direct with Ebanks for 18 yo son and myself. Sean was very helpful and responsive by email. We're both looking forward to the trip. Ship is scheduled to arrive at 10:00 so I booked the 1:00 excursion (meeting at Hard Rock Cafe at 12:30) to be sure to have enough time. Will return around 3:00 pm so could go to Seven Mile Beach for a couple of hours afterwards and get in some sailing, swimming, sunning, etc. and still make the 7:00 pm ship departure.

[trctjs]

We just did Stingray City with Ebanks last week and it was awesome!!!!! We were scheduled to do the Reef and Wreck waverunner at 9am and Stingray City at 11am. Unfortunetly it was rainy and not sunny at all the day we were in Grand Cayman so our 9am was changed to Stingray City. Sean let us cancel our 11am because it would have been silly to go to the same place twice. I think our guides name was Jeremy and he was awesome. He caught a Stingray for us so we all go to hold and kiss one. :D Then we headed out for another snorkel stop.

 

It was awesome awesome awesome!!! I can't say enough about it. Sean picked us up at Hard Rock and took us back there too when we were finished on the waverunners.

 

Once you get out of the no wake zone..it's a blast. We were just flying!!!!!! It's about a 15-20 min ride out to Stingray City depending on how fast you drive. ;)

[sailandcruise]

Just returned from the cruise. We arrived at Grand Cayman on schedule at 10:00 am, already were four other ships in the anchorage. Tendering started shortly thereafter. We waited and took the first tender that didn't require a ticket, around 11:30 am. Got to the dock and walked around Georgetown a bit. Souvenir, jewelry, liquor, cigar shops but nothing of particular interest. Sat and waited on a bench in front of Hard Rock. Saw someone with a piece of paper with names on it; he saw me and asked if we were waiting to be picked up for Ebanks tour. When we got in the minivan, he said that there was good news and bad news. The bad news was that with heavy wind and seas, we would not be able to go to Stingray City on the waverunners. However, we could do the Reef and Wreck snorkel tour off Seven Mile Beach for the same price. He drove us all the way to the end of Seven Mile Beach, where there was a small shelter and restroom facilities. We left our t-shirts and flip-flops there and brought our waterproof cameras and other valuables with us. The previous tour returned and we were issued snorkels, masks, and flippers. After a short orientation, we got on the waverunners and had a blast riding them along the length of Seven Mile Beach to a wreck just past where it began. We stopped and snorkeled around and inside the wreck, after our guide tied his waverunner to a mooring buoy and ours to his. He saw a sea turtle, dove down and grabbed it, and gave it to my 18 yo son to hold. We then snorkeled around the wreck until we were done. We then rode back almost all the way to where we started, where there was another mooring buoy. We stopped there and snorkeled around a reef for a while, returning after two hours total to the beach where we started. We were then driven back and given the option to be dropped off wherever we wanted.

 

We found out later that many of the Stingray City tours were cancelled that day. Our driver told us that we were lucky we booked with Ebanks -- Action Watersports had to cancel all their tours that day. Since Ebanks has waverunners on both sides of the island -- in the Sound and off Seven Mile Beach, they can run at least one tour if the winds/seas are high on one side of the island, and can substitute one for the other if yours has to be cancelled. This is a major advantage of Ebanks compared to Action.

 

If we go back to Grand Cayman, we'll definitely book the Ebanks waverunner tour to Stingray City again.

[trctjs]

Glad you had an awesome time! Isn't that funny you had the opposite problem as us. We wanted to do the Reef and Wreck and ended up at Stingray City because the water was too murky to see the wreck.

 

We'll used Ebanks again too if we ever make it back to Grand Cayman.

[AndyFL]

I had wished our experienced with Ebanks Watersports in Grand Cayman had turned up as good as other posters here.

 

We had booked the waverunner Stingray City tour with Ebanks on December 4, 2007, at 8:30 AM. My wife and I got, bright and early (8:00 AM), to their prearranged pickup location outside Hard Rock Cafe. After a 30-minute wait sitting outside Hard Rock Cafe, an no Ebanks' van anywhere in sight, I decided to give them a call to inquire about their no-show and/or delay. After a exhausting odyssey walking around searching for local currency coins change and then for a pay phone, I was able to contact Ebanks on the phone. The person at the other end of the line quickly apologized and explained their van had suffered "a flat tire incident" and they would not be able to pickup us as arranged. He offered to move us to a 10:30 AM slot, and give us a 15% discount. I accepted the offer, and was back at Hard Rock sharply at 10:00 AM. This time, the van and driver where there ON TIME waiting for us. We did not leave for the waverunners until around 10:45 AM, since they had 6 other riders for the 10:30 AM tour that had not showed up.

 

The waverunners were modern, fast and fun. However, we felt the time spent at Stingray City was short and rushed. At most, we spend no more than 15-20 minutes on the sandbar mingling with the rays.

 

After this stop, we were supposed to go to a "secluded part" of Rum Punch Beach to swim, sunbath, and/or ride the waverunners at leisure. Instead, our tourguide took us lobster fishing on the way back to the departure point where we had boarded the waverunners. He stopped halfway in the middle of the bay, and, with snorkeling gear on, we all watched him go down in 25-30 feet deep water hunting for lobsters with a long spear. I must admit, he is pretty good at this. Within less than 5-10 minutes, he had managed to bring up four beautiful 4 to 6 pounds lobsters. Shortly after this second stop, it was time to head back and call it quit for the day.

 

Overall, my wife and I felt the experience turned out to be "OK", but far from perfect for the reasons stated above. I honestly do not believe their van actually experienced a mishap; instead, I feel we were not picked up at our reserved time because we were the only riders reserved at that time slot, and they probably did not wanted to do a tour with just a single waverunner. Let me point out that this business has no store front location; if anything does not go as planned, you have no other recourse than a phone number to try to straight things out. Please note also that no cooler with fruit punch or water was available as their website advertise.

 

Any questions, please feel free to ask. Thanks, Andy

[goob007]

Nice folks, small outfit, very little orientation/safety review but if you are comfortable with a smaller organization and have ridden before this should be fine